Apparatus for adding a controlled amount of lube oil to an engine



July 7, 1964 R. B. EGGEN APPARATUS FOR ADDING A CONTROLLED AMOUNT OF LUBE OIL. TO AN ENGINE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 12, 1960 JNVENTOR. RAYM ND 8. E665 July 7, 1964 R. B. EGGEN APPARATUS FOR ADDING A CONTROLLED AMOUNT OF LUBE OIL TO AN ENGINE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Oct. 12, 1960 INVENTOR. RAYMOND 5. sacs/v A 75 NE 75 United States Patent 3,139,896 APPARATUS FGR ADDING A CONTRQLLED AMQUNT 0F LUBE OIL TO AN ENGINE Raymond B. Eggen, 14252 Mont'rose, Detroit 27, Mich. Filed Oct. 12, 196i), Ser. No. 62,147 1 Claim. (Cl. 137-653) The present invention relates to an apparatus for add ing a controlled amount of lubricating oil to an engine crankcase.

In the present day truck industry it is very common for trucks to start out at one end of the country and go completely across the country to carry a load from coast to coast. The owners of such cross country trucks usually desire the operators to use the same grade and type of oil for adding to the crankcase oil when necessary during such cross country trips. Heretofore, it has been common for such companies to provide the drivers with canned oil for adding to the crankcase during the trip or with bulk oil in separate tanks. Under the last mentioned circumstances the operator must stop the truck if his oil warning light is lit, in order to add additional lubricating oil either from his reserve bulk oil tank or by adding oil from the extra cans with which he is provided at the start of the trip. In many instances it has been found that the drivers or operators of the truck have been negligent in that they have forgotten to add the oil when necessary because of the extra effort to stop the truck and go through the extra steps of adding oil to the crankcase. Accordingly, it is the primary object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for adding a controlled amount of lubricating oil to the crankcase of an engine whereby the apparatus may be used by the operator of the truck on a cross country trip to add the needed oil to the crankcase. A minimum of time with a small amount of effort will result from the use of the instant device. The operator of a cross country truck equipped with the apparatus of the present invention may add oil to the crankcase of his engine without stopping the truck if the crankcase oil indicator light indicates that the oil level is low and that additional oil should be added.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for automatically adding lubricating oil to the crankcase of an engine which is simple and inexpensive in its construction and maintenance, and at the same time, one which is accurate and easy to operate.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus of the class described which comprises a minimum number of parts, and one which can be conveniently used.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for adding oil automatically to the crankcase of an engine which is accurate and positive and which may be set quickly and with a minimum of effort and which may be put into operation in a minimum of time after the need for additional oil in the crankcase is noted.

It is a still further object of this invention to provide a device of the class described which incorporates a novel timing mechanism which is adapted to operate a spring loaded gate valve, and which valve is located in the conduit interconnecting a reserve oil tank and the crankcase of an engine.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for automatically adding oil to the crankcase of an engine and which can be adapted for use with stationary engines, boat engines, tractor engines, locomotive engines, aircraft engines and truck engines.

Other objects, features and advantages of this invention will be apparent from the following detailed descripice tion and appended claim, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of the specification wherein like reference numerals designate corresponding parts of the several views.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view, with parts broken away and with parts shown in fragment, of an illustrative apparatus for adding a controlled amount of lubricating oil to an engine crankcase and which is made in accordance with the principles of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary elevational view of the dashboard of a vehicle provided with the apparatus illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a horizontal sectional View of the structure illustrated in FIG. 2, taken substantially along the line 3-3 thereof, and looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 4 is an elevational sectional view of the structure shown in FIG. 3, taken substantially along the line 4 4 thereof, and looking in the direction of the arrows; and,

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary elevational view of the structure illustrated in FIG. 3, taken along the line 55 thereof, and looking in the direction of the arrows.

Referring now to the drawings, and in particular to FIG. 1 wherein is shown an illustrative embodiment of the invention, the reference numeral 10 designates an engine crankcase to which lubricating oil is to be added by the apparatus of the present invention. The numeral 11 designates a reserve lubricating oil tank which is located in a suitable position adjacent the engine. The lubricating oil would flow by gravity from the reserve tank 11 through the conduit 12, the flow control valve 13 and then through the conduit 14 to the engine crankcase 10.

As shown in FIG. 3, the flow control valve 13 is provided with a valve seat 15 which coacts with the valve member 16 to provide a quick-acting gate valve for controlling the flow of lubricating oil through the conduits 12 and 14. The flow control valve 13 includes the stem housing 17 in which is operatively mounted the valve stem 18 on the inner end of which is mounted the valve member 16. A coil spring 19 is mounted around the stem 18 inside the housing 17. The inner end of the spring 19 abuts the enlarged outer end of the valve member 19 and the outer end of the spring 19 abuts the spring adjusting nut 20 which is threadably mounted in the outer end of the stem housing 17 and which surrounds the stem 18. It will be seen that the spring 19 functions so as to normally bias the valve member 16 into the closed position in the valve seat 15. The spring pressure exerted on valve member 16 may be adjusted by means of the nut 20. It will be understood that the control valve 13 is a spring loaded valve of the gate type and that any suitable valve of this type may be employed. The flow control valve 13 would be calibrated to permit a flow of one quart of oil through the valve in 15 seconds.

The flow control valve 13 is adapted to be moved to the open position by means of the following described structure. The outer end of the valve stem 18 is operatively connected by a universal joint, generally indicated by the numeral 21, to an intermediate control pull rod 22 which is in turn connected by means of a second universal joint 23 to the control pull-out rod 24. The universal joints 21 and 23 may be of any suitable type. As shown in FIG. 3, the pull rod 24 is slidably mounted in the guide sleeve 25 which is slidably mounted on the rear side of the support housing 26 of the timer mechanism described in detail hereinafter. The housing 26 is fixedly mounted on the inner side of the vehicle instrument panel or dashboard 27 by any suitable means, as by means of a plurality of bolts and nuts indicated generally by the numerals 23. The outer end of the pull rod 24 extends through the housing 26 and the hole 29 in the panel 27 and is provided with an enlarged head or knob 30 for operating the same.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the pull-out rod 24 is provided with a reduced portion or annular locking notch 31 at a point thereon which is disposed within the housing 26. A trip lever or releasable holding lever 32 is disposed within the casing 26 and has one end thereof pivotally mounted on the rod 33 which is horizontally disposed in the housing 26. As shown in FIG. 3, the rear end of the trip lever rod 33 is fixedly mounted in the rear vertical wall 34 of the housing 26. As best seen in FIG. 4, a coil spring 35 is provided to maintain a a normal downwardly directed pressure or bias on the lever 32. The trip lever spring 35 is connected at its upper end to the spring pin 36 which is fixed in the lever 32. The lower end of the spring 35 is fixed to the rod 37 which is horizontally disposed in the housing 26 and has the rear end thereof fixedly mounted in the vertical housing wall 34. The trip lever 32 is provided with an arcuate recess 33 on the lower end thereof. It will be seen that the spring 35 maintains a downward bias on the lever 32 so as to keep it in engagement with the upper side of the pull rod 24. When the pull rod 24 is pulled outwardly of the panel 27, the locking notch 31 will be brought under the lever 32 and the spring 35 will move the lever 32 downwardly into the notch 31 whereby the rod 24 will be held in the solid line position shown in FIG. 3. When the rod 24 is held in the holding position as shown in FIG. 3, the valve member 16 will be in the open position to permit a measured amount of oil to pass through the valve 13 to the crank case 10.

FIG. 3 shows a conventional clockwork mechanism or timing mechanism 39 which is fixedly secured to the outer side of the housing wall 34 by any suitable means. The timing mechanism 33 is provided with the shaft 40 which extends forwardly through the housing Wall 34 and the panel 27. A control selector knob 41 is mounted on the outer end of the shaft 40. The timer 39 is of the mechanical type readily available on the market whereby when the knob 41 is turned a predetermined distance, the timing mechanism 39 will turn the shaft 40 and the knob back to the zero starting in a predetermined time. The timer mechanism 39 is preferably of the one minute type. The timer mechanism 39 is covered by the dust housing 42 which is fixedly secured to the back of the housing 26 by any suitable means as by the plurality of bolts and nuts 43.

FIGS. 3 and 4 show a cam made in the shape of a wheel and indicated by the numeral 44. The earn 44 is fixedly mounted on the shaft 40 by any suitable means as by being press fitted thereon or by means of a spline fitting. The cam 44 is provided with a cam pin 45 which is adapted to be in position as shown in FIG. 4 when the timer mechanism is in the zero position whereby the lever 32 will be lifted upwardly by the cam pin 45 to permit the rod 24 to move inwardly for closing the valve 13. Fixedly mounted in the housing wall 34 and extending forwardly therefrom is the horizontal stop rod 46 which functions as a stop abutment. It will be seen that when the timer mechanism turns the cam wheel 44 counterclockwise as viewed in FIG. 4 to return the cam wheel to the zero setting, the cam pin 45 will move the lever 32 upwardly into an abutting position against the stop pin 46. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 5, a plate 47 is mounted on the outer face of the instrument panel 27 and this plate is marked with indicia indicating the number of quarts which will be passed through the valve 13 when the indicator knob 41 is turned to the various quart markings. The numeral 48 indicates an indicator light which is used in many vehicles today and which is a conventional type and operates in a conventional manner. The indicator light 48 is lit when the oil in an engine crankcase drops down to a predetermined level in the crankcase.

In the use of the present invention, the reserve tank 11 would be mounted in a suitable position adjacent the engine crankcase 1%) whereby oil may flow from the tank 11 and through the conduits 12 and 14 and the valve 13 by gravity to the crankcase. In a truck-tractor the tank 16 may be mounted on the back of the cab. In the use of the apparatus of the present invention with a stationary engine the reserve tank will be mounted on a rack beside the engine crankcase at a level to permit flow from the tank to the crankcase by gravity. When the indicator light 48 is lit to show the operator that the crankcase lubricating oil level has fallen a predetermined amount, the operator may add a desired number of quarts of oil by operating the apparatus of the present invention in the following manner. If the indicator light is adapted to operate when the oil level in the crankcase has dropped an amount equal to one quart, then the operator would merely turn the knob 41 clockwise, as viewed in FIG. 5, so that the knob nose would be opposite the indicia marking of one quart. Successively, the operator would then pull the rod 24 outwardly, whereby the trip lever 32 will be pulled downwardly by the spring 35 to engage the locking notch 31 and hold the valve member 16 in the open position against the pressure of the spring 19, as shown in FIG. 3. The valve 13 would be calibrated to permit a quart of oil to flow therethrough in a time period of 15 seconds. The timing mechanism 39 would be of the one minute type, and by turning the knob 41 a quarter of a turn, it would then take 15 seconds to return the knob 41 backwardly or counter clockwise to the zero position. When the knob 41 is returned to the zero position, the cam pin 45 will engage the lever 32 and return it to the solid line position shown in FIG. 4 from the dotted line locking position shown therein, to release the rod 24 and permit the spring 19 to return the valve member 16 to the closed position and stop the flow of oil from the tank to the crankcase. It will be seen that the apparatus of the present invention provides a means for quickly and accurately adding a predetermined amount of lubrieating oil to an engine crankcase when it is needed. The truck provided with an apparatus of the type illustrated would permit the operator to add the needed oil without stopping the vehicle and wasting time to accomplish this operation. An apparatus of the type illustrated herein guards against the negligence of a truck driver who forgets to add oil when required in a long distance run since by making the apparatus readily available and easy to operate it is simple for the driver to make sure that the oil is added at the proper time. An apparatus of the type disclosed will also save the owner of the truck money since it is possible to buy bulk oil cheaper than oil which is sold in quart cans. It will be seen that the apparatus of the present invention can be used on boats, mounted in stationary engines, tractor engines, aircraft engines and diesel engines used in locomotives.

While it will be apparent that the preferred embodiment of the invention herein disclosed is well calculated to fulfill the objects above stated, it will be appreciated that the invention is susceptible to modification, varia tion and change without departing from the proper scope or fair meaning of the subjoined claim.

What I claim is:

An apparatus for adding a controlled amount of oil from a reserve oil tank to a vehicle engine crankcase comprising: a conduit for connecting said tank to the crankcase; a flow control valve in said conduit and movable between open and closed positions; a first spring means engaging said valve for normally biasing said valve to the closed position; a housing; a holding rod slidably mounted through said housing and having the inner end connected to said valve and the outer end provided with a knob for manually moving the rod to a valve opening position to move the valve to the open position against the closing action of said first spring means; said rod having a notch formed in its periphery; a trip lever having one end pivotally mounted to said housing; a second spring means normally biasing said trip lever against 5 said rod and into releasable locking engagement with said notch to retain said rod in the valve opening posi tion to allow oil to flow from said tank through said conduit and into the crankcase; a timing mechanism in said housing; a driving shaft connected to the timing 10 mechanism; a control knob on said shaft for setting the timing mechanism; and, a rotable cam means on said shaft for engaging said trip lever to move it out of engagement with said notch to release said rod after a predetermined amount of oil has passed through the valve and allow said first spring means to move the valve to the closed position.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,545,928 Martin Mar. 20, 1951 2,551,445 Lindsay May 1, 1951 2,761,596 Ward Sept. 4, 1956 FOREIGN PATENTS 565,820 France Nov, 12, 1923 

